San Jose State vs. Navy final score: Rush defense lets down Spartans, yet again, fall 41-31

The Navy Midshipmen are known for being a prolific rushing team, and San Jose State has been susceptible to giving up a lot of yards. In Saturday's, 41-31, loss to Navy, San Jose State gave up 423 yards with quarterback Keenan Reynolds rushing for a career-high 251 and another three touchdowns. The effort by Reynolds was a somewhat of a shock since he has been nursing a knee injury for the past month.

Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo witnessed a healthy Reynolds all week in practice and had an inkling that his quarterback could have a breakout game. Well, the Spartans track record of allowing big rushing games this year probably was a reason Niumatalolo felt that way.

San Jose State looked to have a good start to this game when they forced a Navy fumble deep in their territory on the first play, but the Spartans could not recover. The red zone bit the Spartans again as quarterback Joe Gray threw a bad interception to come up with no points.

Those were the only two turnovers and the two teams were even in yards with 479 for Navy and 422 for San Jose State and there were only two penalties for the Spartans and zero for the Midshipmen. Time of possession was pretty even as was third down and fourth down conversions.

The game really changed when Navy rolled out 17 straight points that stretched with a field goal at the end of the half and then they proceeded to score the only touchdown in the third quarter and also scored the first touchdown in the fourth quarter. That stretch gave Navy a 38-17 lead and it was too little to late for the Spartans.

Navy just controlled the clock with 23 plays in the third quarter while the Spartans have a three-and-out and then an eight-play drive that also led to a punt.

Spartans quarterback Joe Gray did all he could to keep San Jose State in the game as he had a solid outing by completing 33 of 46 passes for for 322 yards, a touchdown and just the one early interception.

It just came down to the defense that let the Spartans down this week as they had no answer for Reynolds, and the Navy team, which allowed 6.2 yards per carry and five total touchdowns.

The one positive is that this is not a league game for San Jose State, meaning the Spartans still have a shot at maybe winning the West division.